This invention relates to an operation device for an absorption cold and warm water system using as a main heat source a low temperature warm water provided by utilizing solar heat while using vapor or a fuel as an ancillary heat source.
An absorption cold and warm water system provided with a generator using as a heating source a low temperature warm water obtained by utilizing solar heat is described in, for example "REFRIGERATING AND AIR CONDITIONING TECHNOLOGY", Vol. 32, No. 371, a Japanese magazine published in January 1981.
In absorption cold and warm water systems of the prior art provided with a low temperature heat source generator using as a heating source a low temperature warm water provided by utilizing solar heat, it is known that, when the cold and warm water system had a reduced load and had an ample supply of solar heat, the solar heat would become redundant if the supply of the low temperature warm water to the cold and warm water system were interrupted. To cope with this situation, proposals have been made to adopt the following measures. However, these measures are not without disadvantages.
One solution would be to render the solar heat collector inoperative by interrupting a supply of water thereto, to thereby keep the solar heat collector from collecting solar heat. When this solution is adopted, however, the temperature of the solar heat collector would show an inordinate rise, and this would make it impossible to pass water to the solar heat collector as soon as the load of the cold and warm water increases. Thus, this would make it impossible to suitably cope with variations in load.
Another solution would be to dispose of the collected heat by utilizing a cooling tower while allowing water to be passed to the solar heat collector. This solution would be against the principle of fuel conservation because power required for running the motor of the cooling tower would be wasted, thereby defeating the purpose of utilizing inexpensive solar heat.
Still another solution would be to provide a heat storage tank for storing heat in an amount corresponding to the difference between the amount of solar heat collected by the solar heat collector and the load of the cold and warm water system. The heat storage tank serving this purpose would be quite high in capacity, thereby increasing installation cost.
In view of the foregoing, attempts have been made to combine these solutions into a single process for obviating the trouble. However, no satisfactory results have been obtained.